The expansion of business operations across geographically distributed offices (sites) has encouraged the widespread adoption of virtualization and network technologies, such as virtual desktops. Such technologies enable users to remotely access computing resources and data across different sites and in different geographies. However, such technologies also present some challenges with regard to use of peripheral devices, such as printers. For example, when seeking to print a document, a user within an enterprise network might be presented with all of the networked printers within the enterprise, potentially hundreds of printers and peripheral devices, which might be in different buildings or even in different geographical regions (e.g., cities, countries). A user can easily misidentify an appropriate printer. Misidentification of the correct peripheral device can result in wasted media resources (e.g., paper), as well as wasted time in tracking down where within the organization the printed documents can be found. Additional issues also include security concerns, in cases in which printed documents are inadvertently transmitted and exposed to locations which should not have the documents.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for providing a more secure and more reliable mechanism for selecting peripherals devices such as printers in a multi-site virtualized environment.